Friday, February 09, 2007

The Department of Stupid Ideas

First, the good news. We'll get 8 spring training games (although how you'll distinguish them, given our pitchers, from the regular season ones remains to be seen). The downside is that four of those are with the Orioles, cause Lord knows we don't get that stinking team rammed down our throat enough.

OK, here's the stupid part. Take it away, Barry and Jorge:

On the roughly 100 regularseason dates when Baltimore and Washington play at the same time, the network will offer MASN2, which will be available on every cable system that carries MASN. The Nationals and Orioles will likely alternate between MASN and MASN2 so that neither is labeled as second-tier.

Rather than making the Nats the primary team in DC and putting the O's on the primary channel in Baltimore, they're going to float the two teams around whenever and wherever they feel like it? Wanna catch that Nats/Pirates game Friday night after a hard day of work? Good luck finding it. Is it MASN1? MASN2? And what the hell channel is MASN2 on? (You can bet it's going to float depending on whether they want to pre-empt NewsChannel 8 or QVC).

No, it's not a big deal, but why inconvenience the fans like that? And all because Czar Petey (who's probably in mourning over his Cuban Commie friend's illness) doesn't want his little feathers ruffled. What idiocy! In Peter Angelos' world, there are no grades, no losers, and everybody is a winner! Yay! Let's not even keep score next year! Peter thinks everyone should finish 81-81, and we should all share the World Series trophy for a week or two in the off-season, and we can all go out for sundaes in October and have a big pillow fight at the end of the night! Won't it be fun? Nobody's second tier! We're all teh bestest!11!

I'm someone who regards reflexive anti-Oriolism -- as if that rat-infested, syphilis hellhole compares to this shining city with a Hill -- as just a notch or two above cretinism. But Mr. Angelos' policies are making that a much more attractive option than his delusional utopia of equality.

This is why I have always watched The Nationals on Directv--Its never been in question that The Nationals Game will be broadcast. Its just unfortuntate that some folks homes do not have a clear sightline to the southwest to see their satellites. I don't care for MASN--Have previously stated how much I dislike Angelos controlling Our Baseball broadcast. But, at least with Directv--I comfortable knowing, if I want to watch a Nats Game at home, I will have it, easily. They don't mess around.

The reason this Nationals fan has developed reflexive anti-Oriolesism has nothing to do with feeling civically superior to Baltimore. That would indeed be wrong. No, this Nationals fan is reflexively anti-Orioles for three reasons:

1. Angelos's neverending attempts to stop DC from getting a team;

2. Angelos's neverending campaign to take everything good about what was once a terrific franchise and turn it to crap;

But most of all,

3. Orioles fans' continuing desecration of Our National Anthem by shouting "O!" at the end.

The Orioles organization shows specific contempt for Washington baseball fans in particular and for Orioles fans in general, and Orioles fans regularly show contempt for the United States. That's plenty of concrete justification for reflexive anti-Oriolesism.

arrScott brings up a good point, which should be one of the great debates of our time: Is it it "oriolism" or "oriolesism"?

Lincoln and Douglas could have a field day with that.

____

Good points, all.

The feeling of superiority s just gravy though? Warm, hot, tasty gravy with just enough spice to dance on the tongue, and drizzled all over those delicious mashed potatoes, with just a few lumps, but still kinda creamy, the kind that are mixed in with some garlic and just a dash of pepper. Mmmm...

Ordinarily I'd assume that that was a parody, especially given the name (Millar!?!? Who the hell roots for Millar???), but given the unfortunate state of the Baltimore Educational System, it's most likely one of our Baltimore friends, so...

Since reading comprehension typically isn't their strong point, I'll state it here in simple terms:

MORE BASEBALL GOOD

Having the O's on isn't a bad thing. Having the O's on a regular channel so that I have to shuffle around to find my home team who I really want to watch because an ugly commie sympathizer thinks that this is his home market IS a bad thing.

As far as you assertion that it's through Mr. Angelos' good graces that we're allowed to see baseball, I'd suggest you read up on "Stockholm Syndrome"

Lets see, would I rather watch a 90-100 lose team who's payroll is $40 million(Nats) or $70 million(The "DEE DEE" O's). Now I do agree that the Lerners have been preatty cheap, but they have only own the team for a few months; while Angelos has been cheap for years and years and years and years.....and years. Your only angry cause you know that soon your little crap factory of a team will be over shadowed by our growing Team. Don't cry, you weren't meant to be happy... Now stop bugging us.

I'm normally one to bash Angelos, but a lot of teams split their games between a couple of channels -- often one "cable" and one "broadcast." It's a minor inconvenience, but you do know that the game is on one channel or the other. If the game isn't on one, check the other. If it's not on MASN 1, check MASN 2. No biggie.

However, this MASN 2 business does sound like cable systems could move the channel location. I hope that's not the case.

I do agree with your point that they should just set the "primary" team based on the location of the cable system.

Bottom line for me is that more baseball is good. I like having the option to watch the O's, as bad as they are, when the Nats are on a west coast swing.

I don't care if there are 10 MASN channels as long as they're all HD, but I won't be holding my breath. It was great finally getting Nats games on Comcast last year; not so great to see the incredibly lame 4x3 analog quality of MASN broadcasts compared to the O's in HD on Comcast Sportsnet.

It's highly likely that this MASN1/MASN2 arrangement will wreak havoc with TiVo settings. Lord knows I don't want to turn on the TV at 9, when I finally have some time to watch the game, and see Orioles-Rays instead of Nats-Phils.